noosa-heads

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‘Alderly’ was built as far as possible in accordance with the methods used in England between 1550 and 1640. Some
variation to this building style was necessary because of the local climate. For example, bloodwood shingles replaced
thatched roofs, and sisal craft (a thin layer of sisal and bitumen between two sheets of waterproof brown paper) replaced
the sixteenth-century wall construction method that included the use of a mixture of clay or mud and cut straw or cow
dung.20
The exterior/interior walls were constructed of sisal craft fixed between timber trusses and reinforced with galvanised
wire netting laid on low forty-five centimetre thick foundation walls. This wall surface was rendered with a mixture of
sand, cement and slaked lime. When dried and cured the surface was then finished with two coats of waterproof white
wash made up of slaked lime, salt and tallow. Four large beams were squared from trees growing locally21 to
approximately twenty-five by twenty centimetres with a squaring axe ‘...borrowed from the forestry department.’ 22
When the framework was completed and before the reinforced plaster was applied the whole was painted with two coats
of bituminous paint. The timber frame in the upper storey, which remained exposed after the building was completed,
was painted black. The inside surface of the stonewalls of the turret and the terrace were coated with plaster tinted with
black oxide, as was the grouting of the stonework and the pavement.
An interesting story surrounds the name of the cottage. Originally the name of the cottage was spelt ‘Alderley’ after the
Brisbane suburb where Davis and Grummette conceived the idea of the building project. It was changed by Grummette
before the construction was complete, and followed a chance meeting with ‘...a very interesting old man [James] of
eighty years or more who was born in a slab walled, bark roofed farmhouse on the banks of the Noosa River.’23
James told Grummette that Aborigines had told him that some time before the white settlers came to the area, strangers
came from the sea, built a camp, stayed for a while before building another boat and sailing away. He also told
Grummette that as a young man he had found the remains of a shipwreck in Little Cove that had since vanished, but
which was identified by Queensland Museum staff from remains he salvaged as being Spanish or Portuguese.
James became obsessed with the idea of the Portuguese/Spanish wreck in Little Cove and was invited by a Brisbane
antique dealer to examine an old trunk purchased from a Portuguese immigrant. The chest contained a ship’s log from
the Portuguese ship the Santa Juanita, and a diary. The diary was that of a Jane Alderly, who had been taken by Don
Carlos de Valdez, the captain of the ship after the ship in which she was sailing was sacked and burnt and before he was
wrecked on what he believed to be the East Coast of Terra Australis Incognito.
According to Grummette’s account, James believed that Jane Alderly died in the area of Little Cove, and has since
haunted the place. Grummette recalls several instances when a ghostly vision appeared before him during his
occupancy of the cottage, and James recalls a honeymoon couple returning from a night fishing expedition at Dolphin
Point who saw a ghost in the area of Little Cove.
In 1992 Grummette wrote to K Lindsell of the Eumundi & District Historical Association Inc. from Mount Lawley in West
Australia outlining a similar story24, and later the same year The Review newspaper published two accounts including
photographs of the same story.25
6.2.2        HISTORICAL THEMES
This place illustrates the following historical themes in the Noosa Shire based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s,
Guidelines for Historical and Indigenous Cultural Heritage Management, dated 2001 -
4(e) (Establishing and developing towns – housing urban populations: residence (house)
6.2.3       POTENTIAL SIGNIFICANCE
The building is a place of cultural heritage significance because of its association with the domestic building industry in
Noosa. The building is a unique structure in the Shire, as is the method of construction.
Alderly was one of the first houses built on the area of land called Little Cove, and the only surviving example of the
Tudor Village constructed by Harry Davis.
It is recommended that Noosa Shire Council consider assessment criteria b, d and e based on the Environmental
Protection Agency’s Guidelines for Historical and Indigenous Cultural Heritage Management, dated 2001, as relevant to
this place.



20
     Jack Grummette ‘A Tudor Style House at Alderley’, unpublished, 1992, p. 3.
21
   During the early years of the National Park the State Forestry Department permitted limited logging. The ‘headquarters’ for the
forestry camp was near the present park office and picnic ground. See Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Noosa National Park
Management Plan October 1999, Brisbane, Government Printer, pp 6-7.
22
     Grummette, p. 2.
23
     Grummette, p. 5.
24
     Grummette to Secretary, Eumundi Historical Society, 11 February 1992.
25
  Whitley, C ‘The Story of Alderly at Noosa’s First Point’, The Review, 29 September 1992; Grummette, J ‘’Alderly’ of Little Cove, Noosa
– a letter....’ The Review, 17 November 1992, p. 15.